Rain, when is it going to end? It’s July 4th weekend and in the Northeast we are still waiting for summer to come. In the meantime the damp, wet conditions have been ideal for red thread, a fungal disease that gets its name from a red thread like structure that grows from the upper portions of the infected grass.
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Red Thread
Friday, July 3rd, 2009Water Usage
Friday, June 26th, 2009June 7th Sunday’s Boston Globe had an article blaming water overuse to lawn watering. The most egregious offense mentioned in the article was “You can be out in a downpour and the sprinklers are on – it’s frustrating,” . While I agree that lawns and automatic sprinkler systems can be at the root of the overuse problem it is not for the reasons outlined.
Take a Rest
Friday, June 5th, 2009Most high school athletic programs are winding down or have wound down for those that did not make the post season tournaments. Now is the time to afford your athletic fields a time to rest and recuperate.
How do you do that? Take some time off from mowing. Give yourself some rest, too! Allow your athletic fields that you have been mowing at 2 ½ inches to grow longer. Raise your mower heights to
3 ½ – 4 inches. Keep them at this height until August.
This will allow the grass on your athletic fields to carry on more photosynthesis and put down deeper roots. This will make the turf on your athletic fields more wear resistant come the fall when the heavy hitters get out there; football, soccer and field hockey.
Take a rest, your fields will thank you.
Over-seeding
Friday, May 29th, 2009As part of any turf program, regardless of whether or not it is an organic program, one should over-seed at the appropriate time of the season. Given that we approaching the end of May the first window for over-seeding is quickly closing is the northeast.
The approach we take in our all natural turf care program is different in the spring than it is in the fall. On residential properties the goal is to establish turf coverage anywhere you have bare soil. The best way we have found to do this is to top-dress and over-seed. The easiest and most successful way is to incorporate the grass seed and a loam/compost mix in a wheelbarrow and then use the mixture to make your repairs.
On athletic fields our approach is a little different in that we generally aerate, if the field is compacted, and broadcast the seed at a heavy rate. If turf conditions are really poor especially around the goal mouths on sports field like lacrosse you may need to do additional remediation.
Mow High, Leave the Clippings
Thursday, May 21st, 2009The importance of mowing high in an all natural turf care program cannot be stressed enough. Applying the proper organic and all natural materials while important cannot make up for improper mowing.
I was recently called in to look at a sports field where the trustees wanted to go organic. They were concerned that the field was not responding. What I saw was a bluegrass sod field that was infected with leaf spot. I believe the major contributor to this condition was the fact that the field had been cut at 1 ½ inches.
The fellow that mows the property says that his equipment cannot cut the field that short. Yet he has never checked to see at what height the blades are off the ground on his mower deck. Do not rely on the markings on the mower. An easy gauge for cutting at 3 inches is as simple as nailing two pieces of 2 x 4 together and slipping them under the blades. Tip them on their side and you have a gauge for a 3 ½ inch cut. I must also make the important point: PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS WITH YOUR EQUIPMENT RUNNING.
Improper tire inflation can also affect the height of cut. Routinely check tire inflation and also the dolly wheels on the mower deck. More than once I have seen fields scalped for lack of proper inflation or a missing roller on a deck. The operator blithely went on mowing without ever looking to see the results of his efforts.
Leaving the clippings is also important. It has been our experience that clients that routinely had their mowing service provider routinely remove clippings the level of organic matter in the soil also went down year after year to the point that the soil conditions would not support desirable soil biology. Earthworms love clippings and are ten times better than any mechanical means for aerating the soil. Water absorption, both speed and amount, is directly related to the number of earthworms living in the soil.
Blowball Puffball Lion’s Tooth
Friday, May 8th, 2009The dandelion, taraxacum officinale, by any other name is still readily recognized by children and adult alike. Their yellow heads have been popping up in lawns in the area over the last week. If you’re taking an all natural organic approach to your lawn it is important to look at weeds for what they are telling you about the soil conditions rather than the more common approach as something that needs to be nuked.
Cover Up
Friday, May 1st, 2009Spring is the time to make certain that bare and thin spots are top-dressed and over-seeded in the Northeast. In an all natural organic turf care approach a dense stand of turf grass is the best defense against weeds. This is especially true when trying to make improvements to the underlying soil conditions. As such I strongly discourage trying to establish a new lawn or perform major lawn renovations in the spring.
Bare soil = Weeds. The faster you can fill in your turf the better off you will be. For that reason I recommend over-seeding those bare spots with perennial ryegrass. Perennial ryegrass will germinate in approximately three to ten days. Kentucky bluegrass can easily take twice as long if not longer; germinating in six to twenty-eight days. As such Kentucky bluegrass will not be established soon enough to provide us with the desired weed protection.
Keep in mind that soil temperature affects seed germination. Seeds will not germinate until the soil temperature reaches 50⁰ or greater. Soil temperatures tend to be roughly 10⁰ lower than the air temperature.
It Starts In The Dirt
Friday, April 24th, 2009In order for a lawn to thrive it needs a healthy medium (the soil) to grow in. An organic fertilization program focuses on the soil’s quality. The aim is to nurture the soil and the soil food web in addition to feeding the plant.
The soil food web refers to the multitude of life forms in the soil. These forms range in size and kind from microscopic one-celled bacteria, algae, fungi, and protozoa, to larger nematodes, anthropods, earthworms, insects, plant roots, and small animals. (more…)
Soil Test Importance
Friday, April 17th, 2009To be successful in taking an all natural or organic approach to maintaining turf grass it is best to establish a baseline of your soil’s quality. Taking a soil sample and sending it to a lab for chemical analysis is key. Armed with the soil test results you’re suspicions will be confirmed or at the very least you will know what to add to the soil.
Hello world!
Friday, April 10th, 2009Welcome to ANTC™ All Natural Turf Care a blog to help the professional turf manager make the switch to all natural organic turf care. Whether you are landscaper, facilities manager or grounds supervisor it is my hope that you will find timely information to help you be successful. If you are one of those folks that just can’t wait please feel free to visit our web site, www.pjcecological.com, and contact my office directly.